Inner container made of plastic and transport and storage container for liquids having an inner container made of plastic

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to an inner container (15) made of plastic for transporting and storing liquids, the inner container (15) having an outlet socket (18) for connecting an outlet fitting (17) on a front side, a bottom wall (20) connecting two side walls (23, 24), a rear wall (22) and a front wall (16) of the inner container (15) and serving to support the inner container (15) on a pallet floor (21) of a transport pallet (11) provided with an outer jacket (14) for receiving the inner container (15), and a top wall (25) located opposite the bottom wall (20) and provided with a filling opening, wherein the side walls (23, 24) each have a horizontal corrugation (47, 48), the horizontal corrugations (47, 48) being disposed in a shared central horizontal plane.

This application claims the benefit of German Patent Application No. 102020 105 525.0 filed on Mar. 2, 2020, the disclosure of which isincorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an inner container made of plastic fortransporting and storing liquids, the inner container having an outletsocket for connecting an outlet fitting on a front side, a bottom wallconnecting two side walls, a rear wall and a front wall of the innercontainer and serving to support the inner container on a pallet floorof a transport pallet provided with an outer jacket for receiving theinner container, and a top wall located opposite the bottom wall andprovided with a filling opening.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The containers of the kind described above are used as a replaceablecomponent of transport and storage containers serving to transport andstore liquids and typically employed as what is known as circulationcontainers, which are filled repeatedly.

Inner containers of this kind are produced by blow molding and typicallyhave a capacity of approximately 1000 liters, transport and storagecontainers provided with the inner containers thus allowingcorrespondingly large amounts of liquid to be transported and stored,space-saving arrangement during transport and storage being possibleowing to the fact that the inner containers are received in an outerjacket of the transport and storage pallet and are stackable as aresult.

The amount of space required for arranging or accommodating the knowninner containers is basically independent of whether the innercontainers are full or empty. This proves disadvantageous in particularif the inner container and the transport and storage pallet providedwith the outer jacket are produced at different manufacturing sites andthe transport and storage containers cannot be completed by “potting”the inner containers in the outer jacket until the components have beenbrought together, i.e., in particular until the empty inner containershave been transported. In this context, the large capacity and theaccompanying voluminous design of the inner containers provesdisadvantageous since the voluminous design of the inner containersresults in a ratio between the transport volume and the transport weightthat is unfavorable in terms of transport costs.

SUMMARY

Hence, the object of the present invention is to propose an innercontainer that makes low transport costs for the empty containerpossible without negative effects on the capacity.

According to the invention, the side walls each have a horizontalcorrugation, the horizontal corrugations being disposed in a sharedcentral horizontal plane of the inner container.

The positions of the corrugations in the side walls as per the inventiondefine folding lines of the inner container which allow the innercontainer to fold to a defined base area defined by the bottom wall whenexternal loads act on the container walls in such a manner that a pointload is externally applied to the surface centers of the front wall andthe rear wall and a linear load is externally applied along thehorizontal corrugations of the side walls, causing the front wall andthe rear wall to be moved toward each other and the side walls to bemoved toward each other, a surface load being simultaneously exerted onthe bottom wall and the top wall in such a manner that the bottom walland the top wall move toward each other.

So the inner container is reduced in height by the folding process, thehorizontal corrugations in the side walls causing the side walls to foldin a defined manner against the elastic restoring forces of the innercontainer and ensuring that the top wall and the bottom wall aredisposed one on top of the other essentially congruently after folding.

When the inner container is compressed to its folded size, thecompressed inner container can be secured in the folded configuration bymeans of belts and stacked with the bottom wall in the horizontalposition or, if needed, disposed in a horizontal row of a plurality offolded inner containers with the bottom wall in the vertical position inorder for the folded inner container to be stored or transported.

When folded inner containers and transport pallets provided with anouter jacket are transported together, the folded inner containers canadvantageously also be disposed in a stack within the outer jacket onthe transport pallet.

If, according to an advantageous embodiment, the front wall additionallyhas two diagonal corrugations below a horizontal wall axis of the frontwall, the horizontal wall axis being disposed in a shared horizontalplane with the horizontal corrugations, the diagonal corrugationsextending between an outer container edge and the wall axis andapproaching each other, a defined disposition of the outlet socket or ofan outlet fitting already connected to the outlet socket is possible inthe folded state of the inner container as a result of the foldingprocess.

Preferably, the rear wall also has two diagonal corrugations below ahorizontal wall axis of the rear wall, the horizontal wall axis beingdisposed in a shared horizontal plane with the horizontal corrugations,the diagonal corrugations extending between a lower container edge andthe wall axis and approaching each other, enabling identical folding ofthe front wall and the rear wall.

Particularly precise mutual covering of the front wall and the rear walland, thus, particularly high reproducibility of the folded size of theinner container can be achieved if the front wall and the rear wall eachhave two diagonal corrugations above the wall axes of the front wall andthe rear wall, the wall axes being disposed in a shared horizontal planewith the horizontal corrugations, the diagonal corrugations extendingfrom the upper container edge to the horizontal wall axis andapproaching each other.

This results in a disposition of four diagonal corrugations on the frontwall and four diagonal corrugations on the rear wall, which means thatthe point load acting on the surface centers of the front wall and therear wall will cause the outlet socket formed on a lower wall portion ofthe front wall or the outlet fitting already connected to the outletsocket to move into a space formed between the bottom wall and the topwall upon folding, the outlet socket or the outlet fitting beingaccommodated in said space, the filling opening formed in the top wallmaintaining its position relative to the top wall during the foldingprocess. So the inner container is reduced in height by the foldingprocess, the diagonal corrugations in the front wall and the rear walland the horizontal corrugations in the side walls leading to definedfolding of wall portions of the front wall and the rear wall and theside walls against the elastic restoring forces of the inner container.

If the diagonal corrugations on the front wall and the rear wall eachrun parallel to a surface diagonal, the inner container can be foldedwith particularly low folding forces.

It proves particularly advantageous if each two diagonal corrugationscoming from a shared container edge form a pair of corrugations and havelongitudinal axes forming an isosceles triangle with the container edge,such that, in cooperation with the horizontal corrugations of the sidewalls, the wall folds formed during folding are located in a sharedhorizontal plane between the bottom wall and the top wall of the innercontainer.

If the diagonal corrugations of a pair of corrugations are disposed atan angle of 45° to the container edge, the folding process can becarried out with as little folding load as possible.

Preferably, the diagonal corrugations of each pair of corrugations havelongitudinal axes that intersect with the horizontal wall axis in ashared horizontal intersection, enabling further reduction of thefolding load.

If the pairs of corrugations disposed on the front wall and the rearwall have a distance X between the horizontal intersections of theirlongitudinal axes with the horizontal wall axis, in particular thedistance between the side wall folds of the folded inner container isset accordingly.

It is particularly advantageous if the distal corrugation ends of thediagonal corrugations extend into the container edge.

Preferably, the distal corrugation ends of the diagonal corrugationsextend into the container corners, making a particularly small height ofthe inner container folded to the folded size possible.

If the diagonal corrugations have a corrugation bottom continuouslyrising toward a wall surface at their proximal corrugations ends, thediagonal corrugations continuously flatten out at the corrugation ends,which means that there is no reinforcement counteracting the folding atthe end of the folding line formed by the diagonal corrugation.

Preferably, the corrugation ends of the horizontal corrugations extendinto the container edges, the folded size in the plane of the bottomwall and of the top wall thus being adjusted to the planar size of thebottom wall or of the top wall.

Preferably, the horizontal corrugations have a concave corrugationbottom which has an enlarged profile radius for forming corrugationwidenings at the corrugation ends, which means that the formation ofkinks, i.e., plastic deformation, is avoided in the area of thecontainer edges where multiple folds meet during the folding process.

It is particularly preferred if the corrugation widenings have at leasta radial corrugation running in the corrugation bottom, a reinforcementthus being created in the area of the vulnerable container edges. If,moreover, at least a horizontal corrugation is formed in the front walland in the rear wall adjacent to the corrugation widenings, the definedformation of the fold in the area of the front wall and the rear wallcan be supported additionally.

According to the invention, the folding of the inner container takesplace in the following way: a point load is externally applied to thesurface centers of the front wall and the rear wall and a linear load isexternally applied along the horizontal corrugations of the side wallsin such a manner that the front wall and the rear wall are moved towardeach other and the side walls are moved toward each other, a surfaceload being simultaneously exerted on the bottom wall and the top wall insuch a manner that the bottom wall and the top wall move toward eachother.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

Hereinafter, the invention will be described in more detail based on anexample of an embodiment illustrated in the drawing.

FIG. 1 shows a transport and storage container for liquids with an innercontainer made of plastic inserted into an outer jacket of a transportpallet;

FIG. 2 is an isolated illustration of the inner container illustrated inFIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows the inner container of FIG. 2 in a folded state;

FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of the inner container for clarifyingthe folding process;

FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of the inner container with diagonalcorrugations disposed on a front wall and a horizontal corrugationdisposed on a side wall;

FIG. 6 is an isometric illustration of an embodiment of the innercontainer;

FIG. 7 is a front view of the inner container illustrated in FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a side view of the inner container illustrated in FIG. 6.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows a transport and storage pallet 10 having, as essentialcomponents, a transport pallet 11 on which an outer jacket 14 isdisposed, outer jacket 14 being realized as a cage having vertical bars12 and horizontal bars 13. An inner container 15 made of plastic isdisposed on transport pallet 11 within outer jacket 14, inner container15 having an outlet socket 18 provided with an outlet fitting 17 in afront wall 16 on a front side, as shown in FIG. 2 in particular.

Outlet socket 18 is located in a lower wall portion 19 of front wall 16in an area of transition to a bottom wall 20 of inner container 15,bottom wall 20 of inner container 15 being disposed on a pallet floor 21of transport pallet 11. Bottom wall 20 connects front wall 16 to a rearwall 22, which is formed on the rear side of inner container 15, and twoopposing side walls 23 and 24. A top wall 25 provided with a fillingopening 26 is formed opposite bottom wall 20. For securing innercontainer 15 when it is received in outer jacket 14, traverses 27connected to an upper circumferential edge 28 of outer jacket 14 extendabove top wall 25.

FIG. 3 shows inner container 15 in the folded state, in which innercontainer 15 has a defined folded configuration 29 having wall folds 30which are formed in side walls 23 and 24 and which extend into thedrawing plane parallel to container bottom 20 in the illustration ofinner container 15 according to FIG. 3. Moreover, inner container 15 hascontainer edge folds 31 and 32 which extend from an upper containercorner 33 to side wall fold 30 and from a lower container corner 34 toside wall fold 30 and which are formed in a front plane of innercontainer 15. Furthermore, when in the folded state, inner container 15has inner folds 35 and 36 which extend from an upper container corner 33into a fold space 37 and from a lower container corner 34 into a foldspace 38. Fold spaces 37 and 38 are formed between an edge fold 40formed on an upper container edge 39 of inner container 15 and adjacentcontainer edge fold 31 and between an edge fold 42 formed on a lowercontainer edge 41 of inner container 15 and adjacent container edge fold32.

For a defined formation of folded configuration 29, inner container 15illustrated in FIG. 2 has diagonal corrugations 43, 44, 45 and 46 in itsfront wall 16 and its rear wall 22 and horizontal corrugations 47 and 48in its side walls 23 and 24, respectively, horizontal corrugations 47and 48 being located in a central horizontal plane of inner container15. For clarification of the folding process, diagonal corrugations 43,44, 45 and 46 are illustrated as surface diagonals in the schematicillustration of FIG. 4.

When the folding process is carried out, point loads P, linear loads Land surface loads F externally act on inner container 15 as illustratedin FIG. 4, point loads P acting in opposite directions being exerted oncentral surface portions 49 of front wall 16 and rear wall 22, linearloads L acting in opposite directions being exerted on side walls 23 and24 along horizontal corrugations 47 and 48 and surface loads F acting inopposite directions being exerted on bottom wall 20 and top wall 25.

Diagonal corrugations 43 to 46 and horizontal corrugations 47 to 48define folding lines when external loads act on inner container 15 asillustrated in FIG. 4, such that front wall 16 and rear wall 22 areelastically deformed inward along diagonal corrugations 43 to 46 andinner folds 35 and 36 illustrated in FIG. 3 form along diagonalcorrugations 43 to 46 and side walls folds 30 illustrated in FIG. 3 formalong horizontal corrugations 47 and 48. Furthermore, vertically runninglateral container edges 50 and 51 of non-deformed inner container 15(FIG. 2) are turned into container edge folds 31 and 32.

When inner fold 35 is formed, approximately triangular surface areas Aand B, which are designated A and B in FIG. 4 for clarification of thefolding process, are moved into a position in which they cover eachother; likewise, surface areas C and D are moved into a position inwhich they cover each other when inner fold 36 is formed. Furthermore,horizontal corrugations 47 and 48 and front wall 16 and rear wall 25move toward each other along a wall axis 52 which runs through theintersection of the longitudinal axes of the corrugations in FIG. 4,both wall portions A and B and wall portions C and D moving into aposition in which they cover each other.

FIG. 5 shows another schematic illustration of diagonal corrugations 43,44, 45 and 46 in a disposition identical to FIG. 2, in which diagonalcorrugations 43 and 44 extend between an upper container edge 54 andhorizontal wall axis 52 and diagonal corrugations 45 and 46 extendbetween a lower container edge 55 and horizontal wall axis 52. Diagonalcorrugations 43 and 56 and diagonal corrugations 44 and 45 together formpairs of corrugations 57 and 58 which, like pairs of corrugations 59 and60 formed by diagonal corrugations 43 and 46 and diagonal corrugations44 and 45, respectively, and illustrated in FIG. 4, together each forman isosceles triangle with lateral container edges 50 and 51, thediagonal corrugations each being disposed at an angle of 45° tocontainer edges 50 and 51.

Unlike diagonal corrugations 43 to 46 illustrated in FIG. 4, whosedisposition coincides with the surface diagonals and whose longitudinalaxes meet in a shared horizontal intersection M coinciding with thesurface center in the case of the illustration of FIG. 4, thelongitudinal axes of diagonal corrugations 43 and 46 and diagonalcorrugations 44 and 45, which form pairs of corrugations 57 and 58 inFIG. 5, intersect in horizontal intersections S₁ and S₂ on wall axis 52,intersections S₁ and S₂ having distance X from each other. Distance Xprevents side wall folds 30 coming from container edges 50 and 51 frommeeting when the folding process is carried out and plastic deformationfrom occurring in central surface portion 49.

As shown in FIGS. 6 to 8, corrugation ends 61 of diagonal corrugations43 to 46 extend into container edges 50 and 51, respectively, morespecifically into upper container corners 33 and lower container corners34, respectively. At their proximal corrugation ends 62, diagonalcorrugations 43 to 46 have corrugation bottoms 64 continuously risingtoward a wall surface 63 of front wall 16 and rear wall 22,respectively.

Corrugation ends 65 on both sides of horizontal corrugations 47 and 48extend into container edges 50 and 51, horizontal corrugations 47 and48, like diagonal corrugations 43 and 46, having a concave corrugationbottom 64 which has an enlarged profile radius 67 for formingcorrugation widenings 66 on corrugation ends 65.

As shown in FIG. 8 in particular, corrugation widenings 66 of theembodiment example at hand are provided with a plurality of parallelradial corrugations 68 formed in corrugation bottom 64 and formedclosely together across the entire length of corrugation bottom 64within corrugation widening 66.

As shown in FIG. 7 in particular, front wall 16, like opposite rear wall22 (not shown), has a plurality of horizontal corrugations 69 adjacentto corrugation widenings 66 of horizontal corrugations 47 and 48,horizontal corrugations 69 extending along horizontal wall axis 52 inwall portion 70 of front wall 16 and rear wall 22 limited by pair ofcorrugations 57 formed by diagonal corrugations 44 and 45 and pair ofcorrugations 58 formed by diagonal corrugations 45 and 46, respectively.

1. An inner container (15) made of plastic for transporting and storingliquids, the inner container (15) having an outlet socket (18) forconnecting an outlet fitting (17) on a front side, a bottom wall (20)connecting two side walls (23, 24), a rear wall (22) and a front wall(16) of the inner container (15) and serving to support the innercontainer (15) on a pallet floor (21) of a transport pallet (11)provided with an outer jacket (14) for receiving the inner container(15), and a top wall (25) located opposite the bottom wall (20) andprovided with a filling opening, characterized in that the side wallseach have a horizontal corrugation (47, 48), the horizontal corrugations(47, 48) being disposed in a shared central horizontal plane.
 2. Theinner container according to claim 1, characterized in that the frontwall (16) has two diagonal corrugations (45, 46) below a horizontal wallaxis (52) of the front wall (16), the horizontal wall axis (52) beingdisposed in a shared horizontal plane with the horizontal corrugations(47, 48), the diagonal corrugations (45, 46) extending between a lowercontainer edge (55) and the wall axis (52) and approaching each other.3. The inner container according to claim 2, characterized in that therear wall (22) has two diagonal corrugations (45, 46) below a horizontalwall axis (52) of the rear wall (22), the horizontal wall axis (52)being disposed in a shared horizontal plane with the horizontalcorrugations (47, 48), the diagonal corrugations (45, 46) extendingbetween a lower container edge (55) and the wall axis (52) andapproaching each other.
 4. The inner container according to claim 3,characterized in that the front wall (16) and the rear wall (22) eachhave two diagonal corrugations (43, 44) above the wall axes (52) of thefront wall (16) and the rear wall (22), the wall axes (52) beingdisposed in a shared horizontal plane with the horizontal corrugations(47, 48), the diagonal corrugations (43, 44) extending from the uppercontainer edge (54) to the horizontal wall axis (52) and approachingeach other.
 5. The inner container according to claim 2, characterizedin that the diagonal corrugations (43, 46; 44, 45) on the front wall(16) and the rear wall (22) each run parallel to a surface diagonal. 6.The inner container according to claim 2, characterized in that each twodiagonal corrugations (43, 46; 44, 45) coming from a shared lateralcontainer edge (50, 51) form a pair of corrugations (57, 58, 59, 60) andhave longitudinal axes forming an isosceles triangle with the containeredge (50, 51).
 7. The inner container according to claim 6,characterized in that the diagonal corrugations (43, 46; 44, 45) of eachpair of corrugations (57, 58, 59, 60) are disposed at an angle of 45° tothe lateral container edge (50, 51).
 8. The inner container according toclaim 6, characterized in that the diagonal corrugations (43, 46; 44,45) of a pair of corrugations (59, 60) have longitudinal axesintersecting with the horizontal wall axis (52) in a shared horizontalintersection M.
 9. The inner container according to claim 6,characterized in that the pairs of corrugations (57, 58) disposed on thefront wall (16) and the rear wall (22) have a distance x between thehorizontal intersections S₁ and S₂ of their longitudinal axes with thehorizontal wall axis (52).
 10. The inner container according to claim 2,characterized in that distal corrugation ends (61) of the diagonalcorrugations (43, 44, 45, 46) extend into the lateral container edge(50, 51).
 11. The inner container according to claim 2, characterized inthat distal corrugation ends (61) of the diagonal corrugations (43, 44,45, 46) extend into container corners (33, 34).
 12. The inner containeraccording to claim 2, characterized in that the diagonal corrugations(43, 44, 45, 46) have a corrugation bottom (64) continuously risingtoward a wall surface (63) at their proximal corrugation ends (62). 13.The inner container according to claim 2, characterized in thatcorrugation ends (65) of the horizontal corrugations (47, 48) extendinto the container edges (50, 51).
 14. The inner container according toclaim 13, characterized in that the horizontal corrugations (47, 48)have a concave corrugation bottom (64) which has an enlarged profileradius (67) for forming corrugation widenings (66) at the corrugationends (65).
 15. The inner container according to claim 14, characterizedin that the corrugation widenings (66) have at least a radialcorrugation (68) running in the corrugation bottom (64).
 16. The innercontainer according to claim 14, characterized in that at least ahorizontal corrugation (69) is formed in the front wall (16) and therear wall (22) adjacent to the corrugation widenings (66).
 17. Atransport and storage container for liquids, the transport and storagecontainer comprising an inner container made of plastic according toclaim
 1. 18. A method for folding an inner container according to claim1, characterized in that a point load P is externally applied to thesurface centers of the front wall (16) and the rear wall (22) and alinear load L is externally applied along the horizontal corrugations(47, 48) of the side walls (23, 24) in such a manner that the front wall(16) and the rear wall (22) are moved toward each other and the sidewalls (23, 24) are moved toward each other, a surface load F beingsimultaneously exerted on the bottom wall (20) and the top wall (25) insuch a manner that the bottom wall (20) and the top wall (25) movetoward each other.